Prevailing prayer is that which secures an answer. Saying
prayers is not offering prevailing prayer. The prevalence of
prayer does not depend so much on quantity as on quality. I do not
know how better to approach this subject than by relating a fact
of my own experience before I was converted. I relate it because I
fear such experiences are but too common among unconverted
men.

I do not recollect to have ever attended a prayer-meeting until
after I began the study of law. Then, for the first time, I lived
in a neighborhood where there was a prayer-meeting weekly. I had
neither known, heard, nor seen much of religion; hence I had no
settled opinions about it. Partly from curiosity and partly from
an uneasiness of mind upon the subject, which I could not well
define, I began to attend that prayer-meeting. About the same time
I bought the first Bible that I ever owned, and began to read it.
I listened to the prayers which I heard offered in those
prayer-meetings, with all the attention that I could give to
prayers so cold and formal. In every prayer they prayed for the
gift and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Both in their prayers and
in their remarks, which were occasionally interspersed, they
acknowledged that they did not prevail with God. This was most
evident, and had almost made me a skeptic.

Seeing me so frequently in their prayer-meeting, the leader, on
one occasion, asked me if I did not wish them to pray for me. I
replied: "No." I said: "I suppose that I need to be prayed for,
but your prayers are not answered. You confess it yourselves." I
then expressed my astonishment at this fact, in view of what the
Bible said about the prevalence of prayer. Indeed, for some time
my mind was much perplexed and in doubt in view of Christ's
teaching on the subject of prayer and the manifest facts before
me, from week to week, in this prayer-meeting. Was Christ a divine
teacher? Did he actually teach what the Gospels attributed to him?
Did he mean what he said? Did prayer really avail to secure
blessings from God? If so, what was I to make of what I witnessed
from week to week and month to month in that prayer-meeting? Were
they real Christians? Was that which I heard real prayer, in the
Bible sense? Was it such prayer as Christ had promised to answer?
Here I found the solution.

I became convinced that they were under a delusion; that they
did not prevail because they had no right to prevail. They did not
comply with the conditions upon which God had promised to hear
prayer. Their prayers were just such as God had promised not to
answer. That they were overlooking the fact that they were in
danger of praying themselves into skepticism in regard to the
value of prayer, was evident.

In reading my Bible I noticed such revealed conditions as the
following:

(a) Faith in God as the answer[er] of prayer. This, it
is plain, involves the expectation of receiving what we ask.

(b) Another revealed condition is the asking according to the
revealed will of God. This plainly implies asking not only for
such things as God is willing to grant, but also asking in such a
state of mind as God can accept. I fear it is common for professed
Christians to overlook the state of mind in which God requires
them to be as a condition of answering their prayers.

For example: In offering the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come,"
it is plain that sincerity is a condition of prevailing with God.
But sincerity in offering this petition implies the whole heart
and life devotion of the petitioner to the building up of this
kingdom. It implies the sincere and thorough consecration of all
that we have and all that we are to this end. To utter this
petition in any other state of mind involves hypocrisy, and is an
abomination.

So in the next petition, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in
Heaven," God has not promised to hear this petition unless it be
sincerely offered. But sincerity implies a state of mind that
accepts the whole revealed will of God, so far as we understand
it, as they accept it in heaven. It implies a loving, confiding,
universal obedience to the whole known will of God, whether that
will is revealed in his word, by his spirit, or in his providence.
It implies that we hold ourselves and all that we have and are as
absolutely and cordially at God's disposal as do the inhabitants
of heaven. If we fall short of this, and withhold anything
whatever from God, we "regard iniquity in our hearts," and God
will not hear us.

Sincerity in offering this petition implies a state of entire
and universal consecration to God. Anything short of this is
withholding from God that which is his due. It is "turning away
our ear from hearing the law." But what saith the Scriptures? "He
that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
shall be an abomination." Do professed Christians understand
this?

What is true of offering these two petitions is true of all
prayer. Do Christians lay this to heart? Do they consider that all
professed prayer is an abomination, if it be not offered in a
state of entire consecration of all that we have and are to God?
If we do not offer ourselves with and in our prayers, with all
that we have; if we are not in a state of mind that cordially
accepts and, so far as we know, perfectly conforms to the whole
will of God, our prayer is an abomination. How awfully profane is
the use very frequently made of the Lord's Prayer, both in public
and in private. To hear men and women chatter over the Lord's
Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven," while their lives are anything but conformed to the known
will of God, is shocking and revolting. To hear men pray, "Thy
kingdom come," while it is most evident that they are making
little or no sacrifice or effort to promote this kingdom, forces
the conviction of barefaced hypocrisy. Such is not prevailing
prayer.

(c) Unselfishness is a condition of prevailing prayer. "Ye ask
and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon
your lusts" --James iv, 3.

(d) Another condition of prevailing prayer is a conscience void
of offense toward God and man. --1 John, iii, 20, 22: "If our
heart (conscience) condemn us, God is greater than our heart and
knoweth all things; if our heart condemn us not, then have we
confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive of Him,
because we keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight." Here two things are made plain: first,
that to prevail with God, we must keep a conscience void of
offense; and second, that we must keep his commandments and do
those things that are pleasing in his sight.

(e) A pure heart is also a condition of prevailing prayer.
--Psalm lxvi, 18: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will
not hear me."

(f) All due confession and restitution to God and man is
another condition of prevailing prayer. --Prov. xxviii,13: "He
that covereth his sins shall not prosper. Whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall find mercy."

(g) Clean hands is another condition. --Psalm xxvi, 6: "I will
wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O
Lord"; I Timothy vi, 8: "I will that men pray everywhere, lifting
up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."

(h) The settling of disputes and animosities among brethren is
a condition. --Matt v, 23,24: "If thou bring thy gift to the
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against
thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First
be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift."

(i) Humility is another condition of prevailing prayer. --James
iv, 6: "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the
humble."

(j) Taking up the stumbling-blocks is another condition.
--Ezekiel* xiv, 3: "Son of man, these men have set up their idols
in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity
before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them?"

(k) A forgiving spirit is a condition. --Matt vi, 12: "Forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors"; 15: "But if ye forgive
not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father
forgive your trespasses."

(l) The exercise of a truthful spirit is a condition. --Psalm
li, 6: "Behold, Thou desireth truth in the inward parts." If the
heart be not in a truthful state, if it be not entirely sincere
and unselfish, we regard iniquity in our hearts; and, therefore,
the Lord will not hear us.

(m) Praying in the name of Christ is a condition of prevailing
prayer.

(n) The inspiration of the Holy Spirit is another condition of
prevailing prayer. All truly prevailing prayer is inspired by the
Holy Ghost. --Romans viii, 26, 27: "For we know not what we should
pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that
searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God." This is the true spirit of prayer. This is being led
by the Spirit in prayer. It is the only really prevailing prayer.
Do professed Christians really understand this? Do they believe
that unless they live and walk in the Spirit, unless they are
taught how to pray by the intercession of the Spirit in them, they
cannot prevail with God?

(o) Fervency is a condition. A prayer, to be prevailing, must
be fervent. --James v,16: "Confess your faults one to another, and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

(p) Perseverance or persistence in prayer is often a condition
of prevailing. See the case of Jacob, of Daniel, of Elijah, of the
Syrophenician[sic.] woman, of the unjust judge, and the
teaching of the Bible generally.

(q) Travail of soul is often a condition of prevailing prayer.
"As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." "My
little children," said Paul, "for whom I travail in birth again,
till Christ be formed in you." This implies that he had travailed
in birth for them before they were converted. Indeed, travail of
soul in prayer is the only real revival prayer. If any one does
not know what this is he does not understand the spirit of prayer.
He is not in a revival state. He does not understand the passage
already quoted--Romans viii, 26, 27. Until he understands this
agonizing prayer he does not know the real secret of revival
power.

(r) Another condition of prevailing prayer is the consistent
use of means to secure the object prayed for, if means are within
our reach, and are known by us to be necessary to the securing of
the end. To pray for a revival of religion, and use no other
means, is to tempt God. This, I could plainly see, was the case of
those who offered prayer in the prayer-meeting of which I have
spoken. They continued to offer prayer for a revival of religion,
but out of meeting they were as silent as death on the subject,
and opened not their mouths to those around them. They continued
this inconsistency until a prominent impenitent man in the
community administered to them, in my presence, a terrible rebuke.
He expressed just what I deeply felt. He rose, and with the utmost
solemnity and tearfulness, said: "Christian people, what can you
mean? You continue to pray in these meetings for a revival of
religion. You often exhort each other here to wake up and use
means to promote a revival. You assure each other, and assure us
who are impenitent, that we are in the way to hell; and I believe
it. You also insist that if you should wake up, and use the
appropriate means, there would be a revival, and we should be
converted. You tell us of our great danger, and that our souls are
worth more than all worlds; and yet you keep about your
comparatively trifling employments and use no such means. We have
no revival and our souls are not saved." Here he broke down and
fell, sobbing, back into his seat. This rebuke fell heavily upon
that prayer-meeting, as I shall ever remember. It did them good;
for it was not long before the members of that prayer-meeting
broke down, and we had a revival. I was present in the first
meeting in which the revival spirit was manifest. Oh! how changed
was the tone of their prayers, confessions, and supplications. I
remarked, in returning home, to a friend: "What a change has come
over these Christians. This must be the beginning of a revival."
Yes; a wonderful change comes over all the meetings whenever the
Christian people are revived. Then their confessions mean
something. They mean reformation and restitution. They mean work.
They mean the use of means. They mean the opening of their
pockets, their hearts and hands, and the devotion of all their
powers to the promotion of the work.

(s) Prevailing prayer is specific. It is offered for a definite
object. We cannot prevail for everything at once. In all the cases
recorded in the Bible in which prayer was answered it is
noteworthy that the petitioner prayed for a definite object.

(t) Another condition of prevailing prayer is that we mean what
we say in prayer; that we make no false pretences; in short, that
we are entirely childlike and sincere, speaking out of the heart
nothing more nor less than we mean, feel, and believe.

(u) Another condition of prevailing prayer is a state of mind
that assumes the good faith of God in all his promises.

(v) Another condition is "watching unto prayer" as well as
"praying in the Holy Ghost." By this I mean guarding against
everything that can quench or grieve the Spirit of God in our
hearts. Also watching for the answer, in a state of mind that will
diligently use all necessary means, at any expense, and add
entreaty to entreaty.

When the fallow ground is thoroughly broken up in the hearts of
Christians, when they have confessed and made restitution, as I
have taught in my former articles--if the work be thorough and
honest--they will naturally and inevitably fulfill the conditions,
and will prevail in prayer. But it cannot be too distinctly
understood that none others will. What we commonly hear in prayer
and conference meetings is not prevailing prayer. It is often
astonishing and lamentable to witness the delusions that prevail
upon the subject. Who that has witnessed real revivals of religion
has not been struck with the change that comes over the whole
spirit and manner of the prayers of really revived Christians? I
do not think I ever could have been converted if I had not
discovered the solution of the question: "Why is it that so much
that is called prayer is not answered?"

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